St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-12-31

be invidious, have we not had among
them Christian men like our own
Joseph c. Hutchinson, and Rush,
and Valentine Mott, and Abercrombie,
and Abernethv? Who have been
our greatest scientists? Joseph Henry
who lived and died in the faith of the
GOSPEL, and AgassiZ, who, standing with
his students among the hills, took off his
hat and said, Young gentlemen, before
we study these rocks let us pray for wis
dom to the God who made the rocks
To-day the greatest doctors and lawyers
of Brooklyn and New York, and of all
this land, and of all lands, revere
the Christian religion, and are not
ashamed to say so before juries and
legislatures and senates. All geology
will vet bow before the Rock Of Ages.
All botany will yet worship the Rose of
Sharon. All astronomy will yet recog-
nize the Star of Bethlehem. And physi-
ology and anatomy will join hands and
say, We must by the help of God get the
human race up to the perfect nerve, and
perfect muscle, and perfect brain, and
perfect form of that perfect child before
whom nigh twenty hundred years ago
Caspar, and Belthasar, and MelchlOr
bent their tired knees in worship.
Behold also in that first Christmas
night that God honored the fields. Come
in, shepherd boys, to Bethlehem and see
the child. NO. they say; I'VE are not
dressed good enough to come in" Yes,
YOU are, come in Sure enough, the
storms, and the night dew, and the
brambles have made rough work with
their apparel, but none have better
right to come in They were the first to
hear the music of that Christmas night.
The first announcement of a SaViOurs
birth was made to those men in the fields.
There were wiseacres that night IN
Bethlehem and Jerusalem snoring in
deep sleep, and there were salarled OIL
GERS of government who hearing OF 1t
afterward may have thought that they
ought to have had the first news of such
A great event, some one dismOunting
from a swift camel at their door and
knocking till at some sentinel question,
who comes there the great ones Of
the palace might have been told of the
celestial arrival No; the shepherds
heard the first two bars of the music, the
first in the major key and the last in the
subdued minor: GLORY to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good
will to men" All, yes; the fields were
honored. The old shepherds with plaid
and crook have for the most part van
ished, but we have graZing-our United
States pasture fields and prairies about
forty-tive million Sheppard all their
keepers ought to follow the shepherds of
nv text, and all those who toll in fields,
ali winedressers, all orchardists, all hus-
bandmen. Not only that Christmas
night, but all up and down the worlds
history, God has been honoring the
fields. Nearly all the messiahs of re-
form, and literature, and eloquence,
from the fields Washington from the
fields Jefferson from the fields. The
pre- idential martyrs, Garfield and Lin
coin, from the fields. Henry Clay
from the fields. Daniel Webster from
the fields. Martin Luther from the
fields. And before this world is
right the overlooking populations of our
crowded cities will have to take to the
fields. Instead of ten merchants in
rivalry as to who shall sell that one
apple, we want at least eight Of them to
90 out and raise apples. Instead of ten
merchants desiring to sell that one
bushel of wheat, we want at least eight
of them to go out and raise wheat.
The world wants now more hard
hands, more bronZed scheeks, more mus
cular arms. To the fields! God honored
them when he woke up the shepherds by
the midnight anthem, and he VIII, While
the world lasts, continue to honor the
fields. When the shepherd s crook was
that famous night stood against the wall
of the Bethlehem kahn, 1t was prophecy
of the time when thresher's fail, and
farmers pillow, and woodlands ak, and
ox's yoke, and sheaf binders rake shall
surrender to the God who made the coun-
try as man made the town.
Behold also that on that Christmas
night God honored motherhood. Two
angels on their wings might have
brought an infant Saviour to Bethlehem
without Mary's being there at all. When
the villagers, on the morning of Decem-
Der %. awoke, by divine arrangement
and in some unexplained way, the child
Jesus might have been found in some
comfortable cradle of the village. But,
no, no! Motherhood for all time was to
be consecrated, and one of the tenderest
relations was to be the maternal relation,
| and one of the sweetest words mother
In all ages God has honored
good motherhood. John Wesley had
a good mother, st. Bernard had good
mother, Samuel Budget good mother,
Doddridge good mother, Walter Scott
a good mother, Benjamin West good
mother. In a great audience, most OF
whom were Christians, asked that. all
those who had been blessed of Christian
mothers arise, and almost the entire as
sembly stood up. Don't you see how i'm
portant it is that all motherhood be con-
secrated? Why did Titan, the Italian
artist, when he sketched the Madonna
maka it an Italian face? Why did Ru-
benss the German artist, in his Madonna
make it German face? Why did Joshua
Reynolds, the English artist, in his Ma.
donna make it an English face? Why did
Murillo, the Spanish artist, in his Ma
donna make it Spanish face? never
heard, but | think they took their own
mothers as the type of Mary, the mother
of Christ When you hear some one in
sermon or Grafton speak in the abstract
of a good, faithful, honest mother your
eyes fill up with tears while you say to
yourself, that was my mother The first
word child utters is apt to be, Mother
and the old man in his dying dream calls
Mother! motherp' 1t matters not
whether she was brought up in the sur
roundings of a city, and in affiuen1